Post-hole digger.



No. 630,865. Patented Aug. l5, I899.

W. H. DALBEY.

POST HOLE BIGGER.

(Application filed Tan. 27, 1899.)

(No Model.)

WITNESSES 8 //v VENTOH Jaw M W y" fi/ww,

A TTORNEY,

lINiTEn STATES PATENT OFFICE.

IVILLIAM II. DALBEY, OF INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, ASSIGNOR TO JAMESTHOMPSON LAYMAN, OF SAME PLACE.

POST-HOLE I DIGGER.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 630,865, dated August15, 1899. Application filed January 27, 1899. Serial N0. 703,609. (Nomodel.)

To ctZZ'whmrt it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM H. DALBEY, a citizen of the United States,residing at Indianapolis, in the county of Marion and State of Indiana,have invented a new and useful Improvement in Post-Hole Diggers, ofwhich the following is a specification.

My invention relates to certain new and useful improvements in post-holediggers; and it has for its object a claw-shaped digger so arranged thatit will dig in gravel or stony ground. The diggers now on the market andin use have a smooth cutting-blade, and when said blade strikes a stonethe digger will not work, while with my improved digger having the clawson the blade, the claws being turned down and shaped like a mole-claw,the stone is grappled and cast up with the soil without stopping thework of the digger.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a top View of the digger. Fig. 2 is a sidesectional view taken on the line A A in Fig. 1.

Similar numerals of reference indicate corresponding parts in bothfigures of the drawings.

3 designates the smooth slightly-turned-up blade that follows the claws.

& designates the claws, the two center claws being slightly longer thanthe others.

5 designates the handle, forked and the ends flattened to fit in thedepressions in the blades and secured thereto by bolts or rivets,thereby holding the two blades in proper position.

6 designates a smooth upwardlyturned portion of the blade to cut theside of the hole and keep it smooth while the claws are cuttingdownward.

7 designates the rivet or bolt holding the handle to the blades andholding said blades in proper position.

8 designates the space between the blades left open to allow the soil topass through and upward as it is dug and cast up by the claws.

The operation of my digger is the same as the common diggers in use. A Tor anger shaped handle is placed on the end of the handle 5, and theanger or digger is turned the same as any common digger, and themoleshaped claws take hold in the soil the same in stony or gravelground as the common digger does in loam.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secureby Letters Patent, is

In a post-hole digger, the combination with a handle terminating in afork at the lower end, of a pair of semicircular plates secured to theforked lower end of the handle, said plates having downwardly-turnedclaws or teeth on their inner edges, one of said claws or teethapproximately in the center and of greater length than the other,follow-blades turned upwardly in position to follow after the teeth orclaws and upturned cuttingblades 6, 6 at the outer edges approximatelyconcentric with the center claw or tooth.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own I have hereuntoaffixed my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

\VILLIAM H. DALBEY.

Witnesses:

J. H. SNOW, JEssE D. HARW'ICK.

